


goddess of rainbows

by honeyotu



Category: AI: The Somnium Files (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Oh also, aiba is there but she doesnt really say much, also sorry ota fans lol, coming out fic, hitomi x date is kind of implied/mentioned, i might make a follow up fic of his friendship with iris becoming like...an actual friendship, post true end spoilers!, so hopefully ota fans wont track me down and kill me, sorry aiba
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-24 04:43:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21093608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honeyotu/pseuds/honeyotu
Summary: Date finds Iris in his and Mizuki's apartment, which is normal, but what isn't normal is seeing her so dejected and worried.or the one where Iris comes out to her found family





	goddess of rainbows

Date wasn’t unfamiliar to his apartment being crowded by two of his daughter-figures. It was hardly uncommon to arrive home to find the girls sprawled on the couch playing some game or watching some movie that Iris determined was the new Smash Bros or Sharknado. On these days, Date would either sit down in the armchair next to them and see what was going on or he would move to start making dinner since lord knows that those two lost track of time and forget to eat without Date around. 

Tonight was different though.

The pair weren’t on the couch. Well, that actually wasn’t too unexpected. Date had worked much later than usual. He had sent Mizuki a text to remind her to eat dinner and she had sent back a couple hours later that she was heading to bed with a warning that he better not make lots of noise when he returns to the apartment.

What  _ was  _ unexpected was that one of the two were on the couch and it  _ wasn't  _ the one who lives here. Instead, Date found Iris curled on the couch with the blanket pulled up tightly to her chin.

“Heeey Iris…?” Date called out quietly with uncertainty. 

** _Very smooth. Definitely didn’t sound weird at all._ ** The voice chirped in his head.

** _Oh shut up, you would be caught off guard too!_ ** Date bit back.

“Hey...Uncle. Sorry. I should have texted you...” Date wasn’t used to seeing Iris so...off. She wasn’t making any effort to conceal her blue mood with her usual grin and laugh. At the moment, she was sitting up and the blanket had fallen to her lap. The fabric was twisted between her hands as she fiddled with it. 

“Don’t worry about that. Is everything okay? You’re welcome over whenever but this is a bit…” Date tailed off. 

“Bit of a surprise? Yeah… It was kind of an impulse decision.” Her eyes were downcast to her hands. “But…” Iris struggled to find words. “Sorry, I’m...I’m sorry.” She cast her focus up to Date who had found his place in the armchair.

“You don’t have anything to apologize for, I just want to know if something’s wrong. Is someone threatening you?”

“No! Well… Maybe? I don’t know yet…”

“Iris?”

“Ota asked me out.”

“...There’s something more though, isn’t there?”

Iris’ held back tone broke, her words came out like a dam had broken open. “He argued with me when I said no. He said I was being unfair and I should give him a chance, especially since he helped save my life and defends me online.” Iris let out a short, bitter laugh. “Like I didn’t already know he was the one sending the comments in the first place.”

“You knew?”

“I’m not dumb, Date.”

“Yeah, sorry. Please, continue.”

“Well… It just continued like that for a bit. He kept telling me why I should give him a chance and I eventually snapped.”

“Did you hurt him?”

“I guess so... Ah! No no no! Not physically! I just...I told him the truth on why I can’t give him a chance.”

“That he’s an otaku creep with an undertone of white knighting?”

Iris was so caught off guard by that, she laughed which made Date smile. At least she was laughing, that was something.

“No, but that may have gone over better.”

“So, what did you tell him?”

“Hey, Date. What do you think of Mama? Like really think?”

“Huh? Oh… She’s a good listener and a supportive friend. She never hesitates to help others.”

“What about her, um...her love life?”

“A little frequent but that’s her business.”

“Date, I like girls.”

“Oh!”

“Yeah… ‘Oh.’”

“Ah, no, I was just surprised. I thought you meant you told Ota about the To-witter stuff.”

“Well, that too but he only made up some other reason which...I can’t think of right now…”

Silence flooded the apartment for a bit until Iris broke it. 

“You really don’t mind?”

“Huh? Mind what?”

“That I’m- that I like women.”

“Yeah, why?”

Iris just stared. Feeling awkward, Date tried to smile back at her. Abort mission, her bottom lip started trembling and she buried her face into her blanket.

“I was so worried,  _ so worried _ !”

“It’s okay, Iris!” Date was crouched by her side in a second, trying to rub comforting circles between her shoulder blades. He had done it to Mizuki on instinct a while ago and that seemed to help but maybe-

Iris threw her arms over Date’s shoulders and sobbed into his jacket. He was pretty sure there was nothing he could or should say so he just stayed quiet and continued to comfort her, whispering comforting words while continuing to hold her. A couple minutes later, Iris’ sobs had quieted down to little hiccups. She pulled away and rubbed her sleeve over her puffy eyes. 

“Thank you, sorry…”

“I think you’ve apologized to me more in this evening than the entire time I’ve known you.” He tried to lighten the mood a little bit.

“Hehe, you’re probably right…” Iris sighed a little as she touched her face to make sure she had wiped all the tears away. “It’s just...hard. I mean I’m not allowed a relationship right now anyway because of Leminscate but Ota kept insisiting and he had all these plans on how we would keep our relationship secret. I just got tired of using all of these excuses which weren’t one of the major reasons.”

“Honestly, Iris, even if you did like men, that wouldn’t give Ota the right to keep pestering you like that.”

“I know that but...I don’t know, uncle. He was so determined. He freaked out and ran off and I haven’t checked my phone since. I’m scared he’s posted something online and everything will…” Iris tailed off.

“You want me to check for you?”

“I mean…” Iris pondered for a second. “Yeah, you can. My phone’s charging on the kitchen counter.” She sniffed and pulled the blanket around her again as Date went over the counter and took her phone from the counter. “The passcode is 1412.”

Date nodded as he put the code in and scrolled to her To-witter notifications.

“Jeez, you do have a big fan following, don’t you… Well, I don’t see anything unusual but I only know a couple of Ota’s usernames. Er…” He changed to her texts screen. “Oh, you have some messages from Hitomi though.”

“Oh, shoot! Gimmie, gimmie!” Iris held out her hand for the phone and Date passed it over.

“Actually, that’s a point. Why did you come here instead of home?”

“Ota knows where I live and mom likes Ota…”

“I’m sure Hitomi would understand.”    
“Probably, but here was closer and I just...I don’t know, I panicked and you and Mizuki are here.”

“Did you talk to Mizuki?”

“No, I think she was already asleep by the time I got here.”

“Mizuki will be accepting too, you know. She’s a good girl.”

“Ew, pervert.” A new voice joined the mix.

“Mizuki! I’m sorry, did I wake you?” Iris asked with concern.

“I guess, but I’m glad I did.” Mizuki found a place next to Iris on the couch and pulled Iris’ arm around herself. “I wanna know when I can help you. You’re always there for me...it’s the least I can do.”

“Softie.” Date teased.   
“I  _ will  _ show Hitomi your internet history.” Mizuki glared with pure venom, Date only raised his hands in defeat. Iris smiled, looking between the two. 

“So… How much did you hear, Mizuki?”

“Everything, I was going to talk to you tomorrow about it but then I came up in the conversation so I figured I might as well come in instead of having that old man plead my case on why I’m not a homophobe.”

“I’m not old!”

“Did you hear something, Iris?”

“No, must be the wind.”

“Hey!”

The trio fell into laughs and giggles. 

“But he’s right, I’ll always accept you, Iris. You’re basically a big sister to me, you would have to murder someone for me to  _ ever  _ be upset with you.” Mizuki nestled closer to Iris and wrapped her arms around the others waist, holding her in a tight hug.

“You guys…!” Iris wailed, the bright gleam in her eyes was of that ever glowing happiness replaced the gleam of tears that was present when Date arrived earlier.

Date heaved an overdramatic sigh. “Well, it’s summer break. Iris, text Hitomi where you are and I’ll get the popcorn started.”

The two kids faces lit up and yelled in unison.

“Movie night?!”

“No, I was thinking we could watch a documentary on the creation of paper - yes, movie night, obviously!”

The trio fell into laughs again while Date made his way to the kitchen and the other two opened WebBend to browse the newly released movies.

** _You’ve really found a nice little family, haven’t you?_ **

** ** ** _Yeah, we have. _ ** Date thought with fondness. 

** ** ** _By the way, I texted Hitomi from your number to invite her over._ **

** ** ** _Wait - you did what? Hold on!_ **

** ** “Uncle! If you already texted mom then why did you tell me to? She said she’s on her way.” Iris peered over the couch at him with a mischievous grin. 

“Aibaaa!”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please feel free to leave feedback!  
If anyone is wondering why I didn't straight up say 'I'm a lesbian' it's because I really struggled using that word when I was coming to terms with my identity. With Iris being in the media industry where she constantly sees lesbian themes exploited for creepy men, I feel like she would struggle too.


End file.
